We're here 347 days into the year. This also happens to be 274 days of being a parent alongside my wife. Therefore it's been 272 days since coronavirus really started making some debilitating steam here in Alberta. The 1st 3 of the 274 days were a manner of turning off from the outside world while we nervously awaited our bundle of joy to join us on this place called earth, and carefully driving him home from the Grey Nuns while the hospital set their 1st version of sanitation/capacity regulations in place. The 2nd and 3rd 3-day periods of those 1st 274 days had us sleeping very little, but loving life very VERY much. We were able to safely interact in the world to a very limited extent with 1 trip to the drug store. It wasn't for maybe 290 days into 2020 when we dared to take our son to a very limited and socially-responsible visit to his 1 remaining set of grandparents. All those days seem very very long ago. Like well over 200 days one might say. That's a lot of cribbage. Right. Crib. My paternity leave allowed for 35 consecutive days of "down time" where my wife and I started refining our cribbage playing skills. Before you know it, it turned into just a regular routine of passing our days together while the rest of the world was keeping away from each other, and my wife, my son, and myself were keeping away from the rest of the world! One of the parts I am most thankful for were the 239 days that came after my 34 days of paternity, where I had the opportunity to work from home. And now with 19 days left in the year, I am for 1, not too too disappointed in 2020.
At the end of it, I ended up counting every social experience my wife and I had. I did not count the time or days I spent with my Uncle Norm (see previous post), though we all always wish it could have been more. I can tell you I went into West Edmonton Mall 1 time for the purposes of purchasing Animal Crossing at London Drugs, as many of the other stores were sold out of it, largely thanks to people quarantining. It's been especially weird this year not going into WEM, or any malls really, for that matter! I've never done so much online shopping in my life! We did spend a little time and a little money finding some special bits & bobs in a few shops for our little dude however!
A lot of people did say that these past 9 months allowed for a lot of streaming and binging and game-playing. When our son was sleeping, we didn't really have too much else to do usually other than just that. The gaming consisted of mostly Animal Crossing New Horizon, as it allowed for a good way of decompressing as well as socially-interacting with buds online. My "house" kinda sucks, but I am happy enough to have it situated on a beach on my wife's beautiful island of "Windfall". Personally, I would rather be enhancing my Mario Kart skills, but it's all pretty fun. We continued to watch some of our favourite shows this year, but found some new ones this year too. Due to having a baby --- err --- due to Covid-19, movies were generally a bust for our family (and the rest of the world). That said, we did manage to stream a handful of movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+. Right now I just happen to be watching Bigmouth Season 4 and drinking beer. My wife isn't too impressed, but is increasingly more interested in the characters!
2020 allowed for way too many bands to release music. I counted 47 full lengths (by mostly all punkrock bands), and another 11 acoustic renditions of both recent and not-so-recent releases. I counted 15 EPs, 10 covers/compilations albums, and 6 singles (including 2 tributes to SNFU). Just too much. Especially when a person spends most of their time listening to...
Podcasts! For podcasts this year, the Rad Dads Podcast was something I really got behind from the early days - and Kristian continues to put out good episodes even now. My wife and I are getting through an episode featuring Caspar Underpants. This podcast has given me something to think about the way I have/will approach fatherhood, and give me more insight to what can be ahead. Thanks Kristian! I am continuing to work through the SYSK back catalogue, and up-to-date on their new releases. I made it too the Christmas 2013 special, so that means only 4 more years of back catalogue to be all caught up! I have been putting Daniel & Jorge Explain the Universe on the backburner, mostly cuz I can't keep up with this as well as all the other media. But only 15 or so episodes behind so that's not terrible either, when they've released more than 200. It would be easier if the Propagandhi Podcast didn't also start this year. I was a few months behind (about 18 episodes), and even now I can't seem to get caught up to more than 2 behind. They are long episodes, but as a fan of the band, I've enjoyed these dudes going into a little more depth of each and every song, 1 episode at a time! Our Couch Potatoes podcast is something my wife and I continue too get a few chuckles out of, even if the Winnipeg podcast moguls are a couple of MVU-loving goofs! They've also given some pretty great pointers in the world of TV and movies. For me, they go back wayyy before the days of podcasting, about 11 or 12 years, where I'd listen to them with my Mom on 630 CHED on Sunday mornings. Wild to think about now... This year, the Couch Potatoes couldn't come up with an official Best Movies of the Year List, but that didn't stop me from making a list of some pretty decent ones I watched with my wife, right from the comfort of our own home!
Indeed. A lot of staying home. In the early days of parenthood/ The Pandemic, touring artists streamed songs for bored fans on Instagram or wherever. DKM always does a big St. Paddy's day show, but I remember thinking it was pretty cool they were going to do a virtual show for the fans. We didn't watch it. We did watch LIGHTS perform on some of those IG Live feeds, and that was weird and OK! In November she streamed a live show out of Joshua Tree with a DJ friend of hers that would die only a few months later. Kayla and I thought this was a good show though. I paid $$ to my "long time favourite band ever" Death By Stereo to have access to their Album Release show, and have them mail a (signed) CD. Not a bad way to support artists, but it was nothing compared to the Best Show of the year for me...
Kayla, Hannah, Chantel, and Matt all were able to come together 2 weeks before my son was born, and celebrate my 36th Birthday at the Buckingham for Seth Anderson's album release show. That automatically was likely going to rate as one of the best shows of the year. A unique festival of sorts was booked for the Fall, with about 6 or 8 rad bands, including The Mad Caddies, Choke, Belvedere ... to name a few. Cancelled. Along with countless others - so many I don't know where to even begin. Death By Stereo cancelled but ended up performing my 2nd favourite "live" show of the year. They released an album and provided us fans to safely rage on at home, which I happily did. Definitely not anywhere near as fun as any other Death By Stereo or concert I have ever been to though!
2020 was amazing for us for mostly 1 reason. For countless others though, we acknowledge how shitty it's been. This largely related to economic downturns and opportunities, but even moreso - the effect of isolation and infection has had on the health far too many. Aside from Covid, 2020 saw Trump in the whitehouse for the bulk of the year which sucked (though thankfully he lost the election). And 2020 saw the loss of several beloved artists and entertainers, not to mention uncles. Aside from Uncle Norm, this year saw the passing of more than I can probably list.
I don't know if I can really get excited over any "accomplishments" per se. I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer for 75 or so kilometres 1 Saturday in August all by myself. I believe this was the 8th time participating. This is always rewarding and also gives me a full day dedicated to those whose lives have been cut short by or continue to fight cancer. I did a handful of fundraising for it too, which is also an important especially given the way that this past year has gone. My other accomplishment has been being proud of the time I've been able to spend with my wife and baby. I have done that more than many dads ever get to in the first 9 months of their child's life... I suppose I am more grateful than anything for this.
There we have it. Another year in the books. I look forward to see what's up next!
